This invention relates to disposable absorbent pads and, more particularly, to pads for preventing the spread of, and collecting, potentially harmful or unsanitary liquids in a variety of situations.
In, for example, the toilet areas of athletic facility dressing rooms, it is common for the users thereof to walk about in their bare feet. Thus it often happens that one may use a urinal while standing barefoot in an area that has been contaminated by prior careless users paying scant attention to what they are doing. Urine or other liquids splashing on the floor can contaminate a large area under and adjacent the urinal. If the user has any sort of lesions on his feet, such as may be caused by athletes foot, the consequences may be quite serious, such as contracting Aids or other dangerous diseases.
Various arrangements for protecting users by keeping an area at least partly sanitary are shown in the prior art. One such is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,275 of Vargo. The Vargo device is a floor mat for absorbing liquid spills while permitting the user to stand on the mat. This is achieved by a plurality of projections having a liquid repellant coating which support the user. Such an arrangement does not achieve complete sanitation, however, since the liquid does strike the projections and some necessarily remains thereon, presenting a potential risk to the user.
Another sanitary pad arrangement for use in toilet areas is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,125,656 of Creamer. The pad of Creamer is an absorbent pad having a waterproof backing and configured to fit closely around the base of a toilet. The pad may be held in place as by gluing to the floor.
In the various arrangements for use on floors or similar surfaces, the problem of slippage of the pad is not addressed, other than the Creamer solution of gluing to the floor. Thus even where the pad absorbs moisture successfully, the area of use is, by its nature, inherently damp, and most absorbent pads being provided with a moisture impervious backing, eventually tend to slip out of position.
Moisture absorbent pads are also used in beds or wheelchairs to absorb fluids from incontinent patients, for example, most of which are aimed at presenting a relatively dry surface for the patient's comfort. One such pad is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,173,046 of Gallagher which comprises an underlying liquid impervious layer, an absorptive layer, a perforated liquid impervious layer, and a top layer of hydrophobic closed cell foam material having a plurality of large openings therein to permit passage of liquid to the underlying layers. Such material as used to form the top layer will, by its nature, fail to remove all liquid since some of it will simply remain on the top surface between the openings. In addition, the Gallagher pad can slip beneath the patient, thereby causing discomfort to him or her.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,431,911 there is shown an absorbent pad having a moisture impermeable layer, a composite absorption layer, and a top layer of liquid permeable foam material which permits passage of liquids to the absorption layer. To prevent pad slippage, the top layer of foam material is folded under the pad and sealed to the surface of the liquid impermeable layer. This arrangement, while functioning to prevent slippage of the pad, actually places a liquid permeable layer on the bottom, and liquid will pass through the liquid permeable foam to the underside of the pad, thereby wetting the sheets, pads, and mattress of the bed, which the liquid impermeable layer is supposed to prevent.
The problem of slippage is addressed also in the device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,433 of Sagi et al in which the underside of the moisture impermeable layer is treated with a slip resistant wax, thereby retaining the moisture impermeable characteristics of the bottom layer while preventing slippage of the pad.
All of the prior art devices are designed for specific applications, e.g., floor pad, bed pad, or wheelchair pad, and none of them possess all of the necessary characteristics for use in a variety of applications.